Horses that are required to be active on paved, paneled, or otherwise compacted or hard surfaces (for example, police, carriage, parade, circus and stage performing horses, or horses typically ridden and/or otherwise utilized in urban environments and on streets and roads) frequently have been shod utilizing rubber or other resilient material at the ground engaging face of the shoe in order to improve traction and absorb shock.
Such shoes have included simple rubber pads nailed to the hoof, rubber coated metal horseshoes (again simply nailed to the hoof), and more elaborate systems for attaching a resilient material to a metallic horseshoe structure (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,881,600, 5,048,614 and 5,168,934).
Such systems have often required significant alteration of the structure of the underlying metal shoe, and/or use of a single sourced manufactured metal shoe for use in the chosen system, and/or use of an underlying shoe of less than optimal dimensions (e.g., thickness, width and weight) for the particular horse being shod. Frequently, unduly close fitting due to alteration of well known horseshoe nailing patterns required by the position of the various attachment mechanisms utilized to attach the resilient material shoe to the metal shoe and/or more frequent shoe replacement (since the resilient materials wear more rapidly than a metal shoe), thereby increasing the potential for hoof damage, are necessitated. Lack of durability of the resilient material shoe has also been of concern when utilizing some such systems, tearing and uneven wear due to attachment techniques having been known to occur.
Moreover, such shoes and shoeing systems have limited the farrier's ability to compensate for impediments of stance, gait and/or health of a horse being shod by various corrective and therapeutic shoeing techniques known to those skilled in the farrier's art. This may be due to inflexible design of the underlying metal shoe wherein addition or alteration of various shoe structure (such as addition of heart bars, toe clips or the like, or specialized shaping, for example extended toe, rocker, or weighted shoes and the like) is difficult or impossible. This may also be due to inflexibility in overall system design wherein the farrier has no control over the relative positions of the resilient material portion and underlying metallic shoe portion of the system when applying the system to a horse being shod.
It would thus be desirable to provide such a resilient material horseshoe and shoeing system wherein the underlying metal shoe may be applied using well known nail placement techniques and nailing patterns, wherein the resilient material shoe portion may be applied to a metal shoe fashioned by the farrier or provided by any of the numerous shoe manufacturers (i.e., keg shoes) and is durable when applied, wherein flexibility remains to allow the farrier to achieve proper fit on the horse and to practice various necessary and desirable corrective and/or therapeutic shoeing techniques including structural additions and/or shaping of the underlying metal shoe as well as selectivity of relative positioning of the resilient material and metal shoe portions, and wherein replacement of the resilient material shoe portion may be accomplished without removal of the underlying metal shoe.